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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5539 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 17 of 26 29 November 2009 at 7:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Grammar: Here's my personal experience with grammar. I had read over some basics on grammar prior to starting my Pimsleur courses and absolutely none of it stuck, so I opted to just ignore grammar for the time being. However, yesterday, now that I've started into Korean II (lessons 31-60) in Pimsleur, I went back and reviewed the grammar I had read previously and a large portion of it that made zero impact the first time just "clicked" this time and makes perfect sense now.
Why? Well...courses like Pimsleur don't teach grammar rules, so all the grammar you pickup is "implied grammar" just like you did in your first language (you are taught terms like "am going," "am going to go," "went," and "want to go" as separate words/phrases, then your brain starts to fill in the rest when it hears several other verbs making the same changes for those variants). For example, until yesterday, I had no clue what an "intentional future" tense was, but I already had figured out from the example sentences in Pimsleur that tacking ~겠어요 onto the end of a verb root made it the equivalent of adding "am going to..." in front of that verb in English. Apparently, that's the "intentional future" tense in Korean. Spanish, on the other hand, I first learned in school so while there were example sentences, the core of the teaching was with grammar and vocab. While I do remember many of the grammatical rules (like the basic present tense conjugation tables), many of the grammar rules have been long forgotten without any real ingrained live examples to link to them. Based on my experience with Korean, I do plan to go back and review the Spanish grammar rules more fully, but not until I have more live examples in my head to use as reference points so it actually sticks this time. Childrens' Books: I was lucky enough to find a Korean/English bilingual children's book called "Aekyung's Dream" at the local public library which I checked out a few weeks ago, but it was still way over my head at the moment (partly because most of my current vocabulary is from Pimsleur which is more "conversational" vocab, not words like school, birds, etc.). However, I've been seriously considering ordering this book: http://www.cheng-tsui.com/store/products/once_upon_time_kore a as it has vocab lists for each story, which I could see being very useful (i.e., memorize the vocab list first then read the associated story). Edited by Warp3 on 29 November 2009 at 7:54pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| onesteptwostep Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5777 days ago 49 posts - 50 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Japanese, Korean | Message 18 of 26 29 November 2009 at 9:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'd heard a lot of good things about Pimsleur and so I got the Italian course out from the library (since I am going to start Italian at college next year), but hated the whole listen-repeat system. None of it stuck, and I found it difficult to work out the grammar rules for myself. I work far better from reading about the construction in question and seeing examples. I learned basic particles, four speech levels, the past tense, future (and intentional future) tense, conditional tense - all of that, through grammar books. I was very unimpressed with Pimsleur and even more unimpressed by Michel Thomas. Needless to say I won't be trying any more audio-based courses. :P I have the exact same problem with the books I have right now, except that my vocabulary is more along the lines of what you'd hear in Korean pop songs (words like 사랑, 바보(!), 세상, 여자/남자 친구, 의미, 약속 - get what I mean?). My vocabulary just isn't broad enough yet for me to be able to understand anything thoroughly. That book looks worth buying. :) But I wouldn't yet consider myself a low-intermediate student. I'm barely out of newbie! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5539 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 19 of 26 29 November 2009 at 10:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Pimsleur: I have also found that many of the words in Pimsleur don't quite stick in the first pass, but that's part of why I've been doing 3-passes per unit in Korean (usually after the 3rd pass of a lesson I feel that I "know" the content of that lesson sufficiently to move on). Pimsleur's suggestion is to move on when you can correctly answer at least 80% of the prompts. I've only had one unit thus far (unit 27, IIRC) that I really felt 2-passes would have been plenty. A couple of the recent lessons have needed 4-passes before I felt comfortable with the material, though. Also, keep in mind that they will continue to review those words/phrases in later lessons.
My method has been: pass 1 of Korean in the morning, pass 2 of Korean that afternoon, pass 3 of Korean the following morning, then a single pass of Spanish that afternoon. However, that is starting to change somewhat as some of the Spanish lessons are getting complex enough that I've moved up to 2-passes per unit on them. (If you are wondering why I do two lessons per day, my commute to/from work is 35-40 minutes which works well for a 30-minute Pimsleur lesson). One downside of the Pimsleur courses is the relatively small vocabulary you finish with, but the vocabulary I do know, I know very well and an audio method is great for improving listening skills and pronunciation. I'd love to follow Pimsleur Korean II with something like Assimil (which seems like the perfect complement to a Pimsleur course), but the only course they offer for Korean currently uses French as the base language (which I don't know and really have no intention of learning). I've also got the FSI materials, but the content is a bit dated (that course is now 40 years old, after all). Books: I wouldn't consider myself low-intermediate yet either, but I still think the contents of that book look useful even at my current level. This site: http://www.koreanlanguagebooks.com/ has a sample excerpt (in PDF) from that book (including the entire first story and its vocab list). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| onesteptwostep Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5777 days ago 49 posts - 50 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Japanese, Korean | Message 20 of 26 09 December 2009 at 6:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, it's been nearly two weeks...
Things have been busy - my birthday (16 now!), ploughing through coursework in a manic frenzy, dealing with personal issues and so on. Went back to the charity shop I mentioned previously and came out with two Korean children's books: 아기하마의 친구 and 아기하마의 아빠. I have been slowly reading my way through 아기하마의 아빠 and was pleasantly surprised at how much I could understand. I had to reach for the dictionary (my brand new one ;D ) every now and again but besides that, it wasn't too difficult to comprehend. I also received a ton of Korean CDs for my birthday and I will be following the lyrics as I listen to the songs - hopefully this will help my pitiful comprehension skills. I've also been downloading episodes of 미남이시네요 (You're Beautiful) - without subtitles. I think the show is hilarious, and I must admit that I have a bit of a thing for 이홍기. :P I am off to France on Friday for a school trip, but will be taking my books and episodes of 미남이시네요 (on my MP3) with me. While I'm there I'll obviously be focusing on my French, but will try to squeeze some Korean in too. :) Edited by onesteptwostep on 09 December 2009 at 6:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Jiwon Triglot Moderator Korea, South Joined 6440 days ago 1417 posts - 1500 votes Speaks: EnglishC2, Korean*, GermanC1 Studies: Hindi, Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 21 of 26 09 December 2009 at 6:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Ok, why is it that everyone who studies Korean either fall for K-Pop or Korean dramas, which I just CANNOT STAND AT ALL? o_O
아기하마의 친구 and 아기하마의 아빠? Lol. Sounds like a very nice story. Must have really cute pictures of cuddly hippos. It's good to see that you are stocking up Korean materials. I've also been recently stocking up on German resources, and I still have to resist the urge to by the Erich Kästner book everytime I go to the German section.. :/ Have fun on your trip. 여행 재밌게 갔다와요.. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| onesteptwostep Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5777 days ago 49 posts - 50 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Japanese, Korean | Message 22 of 26 09 December 2009 at 7:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
I fell for the K-Pop first (Battle and F.T Island), then started to learn the language. And You're Beautiful is the only one I watch - honest! :P
Yes, they're full of huge, cute illustrations~ I don't see it as 'stocking up', I see it as buying goodies to hoard in my room. :D I have a stupid amount of CDs and DVDs now. How come? If you want something and you can afford it and it'll help your studies, why not buy it? I can't say I've heard of Erich Kästner, though... Thank you! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jiwon Triglot Moderator Korea, South Joined 6440 days ago 1417 posts - 1500 votes Speaks: EnglishC2, Korean*, GermanC1 Studies: Hindi, Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 23 of 26 09 December 2009 at 7:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Urgh.. I really don't like K-Pop. And sorry but I CAN'T STAND Korean boybands and girlbands... o_O
Well, I'd love to buy more German books... but.. but.. I've already bought too many books, most of them German. I think I probably spent around $300 on books while in Korea. Seriously, I've spend WAYY to much money that I shouldn't buy anything else. So I must control myself not to buy the new Christmas Album by Andrea Bocelli, King's Singers CDs, John Rutter and Cambridge Singers, Colloquial Hindi, Arabic for Beginners, Beginning Latin, Pimsleur: Basic Hebrew, etc. Seriously, I should learn the art of self-control when in bookshops and music stores. Erich Kästner is a famous German storyteller. He wrote many books, but is most famous for his children's books. If it wasn't for him, Preußler and Ende, my childhood wouldn't have been what it was. ;) Oh by the way, are you planning to visit Korea anytime soon? Just curious... o_O Edited by Jiwon on 09 December 2009 at 7:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5539 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 24 of 26 10 December 2009 at 1:37am | IP Logged | |||||
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I, too, must admit that I've grown attached to a few K-pop groups, but, as I've noted in other threads, pop isn't actually my normal preference for music in English, so the fact that I do find myself liking K-pop is a bit strange. However, I've also found that the more I get into Korean the more I find myself veering toward groups that are quite different from the styles I was listening to initially, so who knows what I'll end up listening to eventually.
I don't really have an interest in K-dramas, though, but that's mostly because I don't really watch much TV in any language (and even when I did, most of the TV I watched wasn't drama). I did buy a short K-drama series on DVD for immersion material, but haven't actually found the time to watch it yet. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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